The Geovisualization process

To get you acquatined with the geovisualization process, this assignment will lead you step-by-step in developing a geovisualization using Google Sheets and an online tool called Umap. Those will give some tools to quickly develop and publish geovisualizations.

Some key concepts for this lab

Immersion: a psychological state in which the user is enveloped by, included in, and able to interact with the environment and provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences.
Interactivity: an important element of interactivity is developing suitable approaches for navigating through visualizations.

Simple geovisualizations in Google sheets

  1. There are large amounts of spatial data on the web that can be easily obtained and wrangled into a visualization. For example, population living in poverty can be found in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty and median income can be found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income.
    Other useful sites include https://data.un.org/ and https://www.cdc.gov/datastatistics/index.html .

  2. Let’s construct a map quickly. For this exercise we need data with a simple geographic identifier (i.e. country name, state or province name). For now, use this data:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_TyG3ULMayTm2Ql_7UPjw3994m0pGW7U5xMV3y6chEo. Make a copy of this sheet in your Google Drive.
    Eventually you will navigate to spatial data on Wikipedia, and copy and paste it into Google sheets (make a specific folder in your Google Drive that you will save this data - don’t add any data that you don’t want to make public as we will change the access later in the process). Make any data modifications that are needed (e.g. add headers, issues with data format, unreadable symbols).

  1. Highlight the geographic identifier column (e.g. country, state) and the variable that you want to visualize. Insert a chart and choose Geo chart in chart type.

  1. Use the Customize tab to change any options that you like.

  1. Finally, feel free to transform your variables (i.e calculate ) or make other visualization that enhance your result (e.g. chart). Embed them with your map using the instructions below.

  2. There are several ways to save your map. You can simply save it as a png by hitting the ellipsis and choosing download and save as PNG.
    You might also want to retain the interactivity. In that case, you will want to choose Publish the chart and hit the tab Embed. Copy the data and view it in any HTML viewer.

Making a simple general reference map

In this exercise we are going to make an interactive general reference map using the online mapper call Umap.

  1. Go to the umap website using the url. https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/

  1. Hit Create a Map , which will take you to the data window

  1. Here you can navigate using your mouse and the pan, zoom and search options on the upper left side.

  1. The icons to the right help in adding elements to the map.

  1. Let’s add a marker point using the marker point tool alt text. Give the maker a name and a description. Here I am adding my favorite brewery in Amsterdam. Notice there are options for the marker under shape properties, Advanced properties, Interaction properties coordinates and Advanced actions.

  1. The map is a bit busy. We can change the base layer using the change tile icon alt text. There are numerous option to choose from. I am going to go with the OSM light (jawgmaps) to emphasize the marker point.

  1. We can also add data to the map using the upload button alt text. It might be interesting to add social media (e.g. Flickr photographs) that mention the brewery’s name. This data can be downloaded here. Use the upload window to navigate to the this file Brewerij.csv. Choose the format of the data to import as csv, and choose the layer to import as upload to another layer. Press the Import button.
  1. You can see that photographs mentioning the brewery are concentrated in the Netherlands, but also come from other countries.

  1. Center and zoom on the markers again. Now the default markers are the same as the brewery marker, which makes it difficult to distinguish.

  1. We can change the specific marker option by accessing the layer options using the layers button alt text. Press the edit button on the photograph data to bring up the marker options.
  1. Use the Shape properties to give the photographic data-points a unique marker.

  1. There is also an options for further making the markers distinctive using the Interactive options button. These are web-enabled options, which give additional information to users about you maps. Information can be displayed continuously, or when hovering over the data-points.

  1. You can change how the points are visualized using Type of layer. There are clustered and heatmap options. These tools aggregate your data for making these point easily interpretable.

  1. We might want to secure our data using the alt text button to ensure anonymity and protect your data. Change the setting of who can edit to your liking.
  1. We can now save it using the alt text embed map button. You can save you map as a geojson, gpx, kmlor Full map data. These are common file types that can be viewed online and maintain map interactivity. These data file types can be view in common GIS software, Google Maps and other online mapping tools.

Lab 1 Assignment

Develop your maps using Google Sheets and/or Umap.

Embed your map into an assignment text entry. Grab the HTML using Publish Chart > Embed. Copy the HTML and paste it into your assignment by hitting the HTML Editor button. Push the Rich Content Editor button to go back to the text editor. The map may not show up until you save it. Also, make sure to change the sharing options on your Google Sheets to make sure it is accessible to view.

Questions

  1. What is a unique “id” in this geographic context? What does it link to? What is the difference between a coordiante and a unique id? (1-2 paragraphs)

  2. What are some examples of maps’ interactivity? What are the pros and cons of interactive geovisualizations (1-2 paragraphs)

  3. What are some aesthetic qualities of maps? (1-2 paragraphs)

  4. Document your geovisualization process. 1) State the purpose of the map and its intended audience; 2) describe the data you have collected and any possible data issues (i.e. missing data, format issues); 3) what content are you including and why (i.e. which regions to include, interactive, web-based etc.). 4) Finally tell us what is the purpose of eliciting feedback in the geovisualization process. Did it improve your map?

The geovisualization process: Howard, H. H., McMaster, R. B., Slocum, T. A., & Kessler, F. C. (2008). Thematic cartography and geovisualization.

Evaluation

Here are the evaluation criteria for the geovisualizations. Questions will be worth 30% of your grade, while the geovisualization and explanation will be worth 70%.

Evaluation Highly well-done Well-done Some deficiencies Several deficiencies
Cartographic principles - 20% (title, name, date, north arrow, scale, legend, explanation symbols) Elements present and correctly portrayed (100%) Most elements present and correctly portrayed (99-80%) Some elements (when appropriate) present and correctly portrayed (79-50%) Minimal information (<50%)
Presentation and Legibility - 20% (readable, consistency and ease of understanding, flow of ideas consistent with cognition, clear explanation of content) Highly legible, consistent and easy to understand (100%) Mostly legible, consistent and easy to understand (99 -80%) Somewhat legible, consistent and easy to understand (79-50%) Minimally legible, consistent and poorly understandable (<50%)
Content - 20% (relevant, coherent and interesting topic, appropriate subject matter given the presented information/data, free of bias and error ) Highly relevant coherent, and interesting; consistent information free of bias and error (100%) Mostly relevant coherent, and interesting; consistent information free of bias and error (99 -80%) Somewhat relevant coherent, and interesting; some inconsistencies in information(79-50%) Minimally relevant coherent, and interesting; inconsistencies in information (<50%)
Aesthetics - 20% (is the map attractive, are there objective elements that are popularly viewed as beautiful) Highly attractive/ beautiful (100%) Mostly attractive/ beautiful (99 -80%) Somewhat attractive/beautiful (79-50%) Minimally attractive beautiful (<50%)
Creativity and persuasiveness - 20% (imaginative information/data, convincing argumentation, presence of sustainability principles) Highly imaginative; convincing of sustainability principles (100%) Mostly imaginative; convincing of sustainability principles (99 -80%) Somewhat imaginative; less convincing of sustainability principles (79-50%) Minimally imaginative; not convincing of sustainability principles (<50%)